I was brought up with dark tales of the Russians – apparently they are subjected to constant propaganda to believe the things they do.

Today North Korea is the object of our ridicule and incredulity. How can millions of people bow down to a ‘madman’ such as Kim Yong Un? Haven’t they got an independent brain cell between them? They must be brainwashed………

But, in modern day Britain, we have our own version of dictatorship and brainwashing  – it’s just a little more subtle.

Brainwashing doesn’t usually occur through hypnotists or people with seemingly ‘magical’ powers such as Derren Brown.

Its most common application is by something as every day and simplistic as sheer repetition.

I will, however, add for those of a more spiritual disposition that black magic is also involved.

It took me more than 50 years to realise that it is plainly crazy for one family to have assets worth TRILLIONS – yes, trillions not billions – whilst an increasing number try desperately to stretch their pay or benefit payment to last the month.

It’s beyond obscene. It’s totally indefensible.

Yet we do more than just allow the Royal Family to exist and distort the economy to such an unhealthy extent.

We bow and scrape to them as if they are ‘Gods’. But why?

Simply that is the perception passed on from generation to generation.

The Royals have their place – they are good for the country, we’d be a lot poorer without them etc etc etc.

Perhaps you’re still not quite seeing the link with the North Korean dictator? Understandably so.

 

Whilst Kim Yong Un proclaims his nuclear threat from the rooftops, we do things more quietly in this country.

We just get on with the real business of bombing people out of existence whilst always insisting it’s for their own good.

And the Royal Family is a big, big part of that.

They don’t talk about firing nuclear weapons – they take part in some of the biggest arms trade negotiations on the planet.

Our links with Saudi Arabia, a Champions League nation in any ‘terrorist’ chart, come directly through Royal connections. Prince Charles, in particular, is a frequent visitor to tie up massive arms deals.

People in North Korea are probably told that, behind the rhetoric, their leader is a kind and just man – the sort who is really worth looking up to.

The same happens here. Neither you or I know The Queen from personal experience, yet we attribute virtues to her because that is what we are told through high-ranking folk and the media.

There is absolutely no evidence at all that she is a benign independent figure in world affairs. The opposite is almost certainly true.

She is not a compassionate, empathetic woman. There are numerous indications to the contrary.

Nor do we make anything like the amount of money from the prestige of having a Royal Family that they routinely take from us.

I have discovered in the last few years that I’ve been fooled. Big time.

We don’t live in a ‘democracy’ any more than the Russians, Chinese or the North Koreans do.

We can’t suddenly choose to be ruled totally by publicly elected representatives.

That’s unless the veil is lifted from enough people’s eyes that they see our rulers for the naked charlatans they truly are.

You’re in for a real shock, folks, when that happens. It’s like having a plaster cast taken off your leg after wearing it for a year – but magnified a thousand times.

The things you have assumed to be true and noble – purely because others have told you that from cradle to (nearly) grave – are as real as the Emperor’s clothes.